Katrina Saporsantos
Katrina Saporsantos has been speaking full sentences since she was 2, playing the piano and singing songs since she was 3… and doing all of that and more since then.
Born to a family of musicians and songwriters, Rina was exposed to the world of music at a very early age with piano, composition, theory and bandurria lessons, and was on a path to become a piano prodigy until one fateful day that would steer her course in a different direction. Her piano bench full of music and barely closing shut, she took out her mother’s thick Rodgers & Hammerstein book to help it close and decided to learn some songs from it (“Surrey with the Fringe on Top” and “If I Loved You”, if you must know) and was instantly hooked on vocal music!
She soon found herself singing in the choir in her all-girl’s elementary school all the way to high school; being part of the Ateneo College Glee Club, the Philippines’ oldest university choir, as a soloist and section leader, and helping the group win several prominent international choral competitions in Europe; auditioning for and attending music conservatories for classical voice and opera, while gaining a minor in piano and earning several conducting credits from world-renowned choral pedagogues; conducting high school, university, and church choirs; being part of a 16-voice chamber vocal ensemble that solely performed newly written choral music by Asian composers; and now, as an award-winning soprano who has performed opera, recital, musical theater, chamber and experimental music, and given masterclasses in the United States, Japan, and her native country, the Philippines.
Rina now lives in Austin with her pianist husband, Benjie, where they are both active in the classical music scene–performing . She is the Interim Artistic Director of Inversion Ensemble, a section leader for Conspirare Symphonic Choir and Panoramic Voices, and a freelance opera singer and recitalist, one-fifths of the all-female vocal quintet VAMP, one-third of the voice-trumpet-piano trio Tatsulok, and one-half of the piano duo Kapwa. She maintains a private voice studio where she teaches students of varying musical levels. She passionately believes in the power of singing with one's authentic voice, and helps singers to demystify singing in order to achieve their goals.
She dreams of owning an artist-run café slash performance space slash sandwich shop that features Filipino flavors.